Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
It is set in a castle in Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 1900s.
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: Omniscient speaker
Point of View: Third-person
Tone and Mood
Dark, Melancholic, Nostalgic, Somber
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Henrik; Antagonist: The shared past with Konrad.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is the unresolved issues from the shared past in their youth that Henrik wishes to find closure. It revolves around the act of betrayal by Konrad and the protagonist’s wife Krisztina that left both the friendship and marriage broken.
Climax
The climax reaches after the stag hunt in which Konrad departs once resigning his commission and Henrik and Krisztina live separately for good.
Foreshadowing
The narrative foreshadows the tension and betrayed friendship of the two men in the anticipation and anxieties Henrik harbors before Konrad’s visit.
Understatement
n/a
Allusions
The narrative alludes to the history and politics of Hungary after World War II; the former empire and territory only live in memory and remnants.
Imagery
“The new wing, in which he had lived with his wife, the brilliantly colored salons with their French silk wall-coverings already fraying, the great reception room with its fireplace and its books, the staircase with its antlers, stuffed grouse, and mounted chamois heads, the large dining room with its view from the window down the valley and over the little town to the distant silver-blue shapes of the mountains, his wife’s room and his own bedroom next door, were all closed and locked at his orders.”
Paradox
“And even the book in its yellow velvet binding, Krisztina’s strange ‘book of honor’ with its alarming evidence of her inner self and her love and her doubts, went on living in its mysterious way, right out there in the open.”
Though Henrik has had Krisztina’s diary that undoubtedly holds the truth about their past he does not read it and later destroys it by burning it.
Parallelism
Though Henrik and Konrad hail from opposing social backgrounds they build a close friendship in their younger years. Through this, the narrative draws a parallel between them to showcase their resemblances which further accentuates their differences in character. Henrik is more in tune with the natural surrounding embracing solitude and set virtues while Konrad embraces worldliness and unconventionality.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“As one came up the stairs, one could already smell the strong scents she wore”
Scents are a synecdoche for perfumes.
Personification
“The first snow was already on the mountains as they finally settled in and began to live their lives there…”
